This invention relates to levers, and in particular, to a lever which may be secured to a door to retrofit the door for easier use by disabled or handicapped persons.
As can be appreciated, the disabled, the handicapped, and those who suffer from diseases such as arthritis may have difficulties operating standard door knobs. Many devices have been designed to retrofit doorknobs so that they may be more easily used by the disabled. However, many of these retrofits are multi-piece attachments which are not easily placed on a door knob. If the function for their intended purpose, they often do not operate over a wide range of door knob configurations. For example, if the prior art attachment works well with barrel knobs, it often will not function as well with oval, round or tulip style knobs.
Further, the recently enacted Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers and owners of public buildings to provide easy access to the disabled. To provide such access through doors which have standard door knobs, such as are used in offices or homes, will require the replacement or retrofitting of the door knob. As will be appreciated, doors and their respective knobs can be installed left or right handed combination and the attachment described hereafter provides simple installation in either configurations.
One object of this invention is to provide an attachment which may be secured to a door knob to retrofit the door knob for use by disabled or handicapped individuals.
Another object is to provide such an attachment which may be easily secured to the door knob.
Another object is to provide such an attachment which may be used on a multitude of door knob styles.
A further object is to provide such an attachment which is economical to produce and simple to assemble.
These and other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the following description and accompanying drawings.